Category: Happiness

Rising riches: 1 in 5 in US reaches affluence

Despite all the tears shed over the income gap in the United States this article is a reason for hope.  Maybe you won’t become part of the 20% earning $250,000 or more but you just might find a path to recovery.

By HOPE YEN
From Associated Press
December 09, 2013 5:47 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fully 20 percent of U.S. adults become rich for parts of their lives, wielding extensive influence over America’s economy and politics, according to new survey data.

These “new rich,” made up largely of older professionals, working married couples and more educated singles, are becoming politically influential, and economists say their capacity to spend is key to the U.S. economic recovery. But their rise is also a sign of the nation’s continuing economic polarization.

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The Great American Society

Black Friday at the mallWhat a great society we live in, in the United States.  The Associated Press reported that Consumer borrowing rose $18.2 billion in October.

The article is a celebration of American’s willingness to go into further debt.  For October the report says seasonally adjusted debt has reached $3.08 trillion.

It’s all because we are a consumption society.  Whatever we want we buy.  We simply hand our credit card over to the clerk or enter the card number as we buy on-line.  All is well until the bank sends out our bill.  No problem that we spent six thousand dollars.  The minimum payment is only $129.00 per month.  We can handle that.

Businesses in the United States rely on this behavior.  Even as the economy was crashing in 2008 and 2009, the manufacturers and retailers knew that this troubled time would pass.

So here we go again.  After all it’s the poorly educated that continue on the same path.  Society does not know how to resolve the problem.  The Poorly Educated is partly the result of bad habits handed down from one generation to the next and the capabilities of those who are poor.  Not all of us can learn to be a doctor or do computer coding.  Not all of us are willing to put in the long hours necessary to make a small business thrive.  Few of us have the capabilities and good fortune to be a Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.

What we all can do is control our desire to spend so that we can provide our families with some financial security when the bad stuff happens.

Saving for Retirement

Living in one of the highest cost of living cities in the nation made saving for retirement a very difficult task.  Los Angeles-Long Beach California had a composite index of 136.4% on 2010.  The issue is the cost of housing.  That is 207.1% or more than twice the national average.  Costs for other things like food, utilities, and transportation are just slightly over the national average.  A middle class income left little for savings.

Even if you don’t live on the Pacific coast or in Manhattan you are probably unprepared to meet retirement expenses.  That is the results according to a survey by Fidelity Investments.

The problem with this survey is the sponsor.  Fidelity Investments wants to encourage you to increase your savings rate because managing savings investments is their business.

We live in a consumption economy.  The stores keep trying to sell you the latest, greatest whatever.  There is hardly a day that does not have a Macy’s ad in the newspaper.  Internet web sites all have links to the things you probably didn’t know you needed.  The credit card only helps you to buy the stuff you really do not need.

Ban credit cards in your house. Shop at Sears and Penney’s.  Stay out of Macy’s, Lord and Taylor’s, and Nordstrom’s.

Before you pay a single bill each month pay yourself in the form of a fixed amount of savings.

Erin Burnett Gives Birth to a Baby Boy

Erin-BurnettA favorite anchor of mine on CNN, Erin Burnett, welcomed her first child – a boy – with husband David Rubulotta on Friday.

“Dave and I welcomed a healthy, happy baby boy at 9:47 p.m. Friday November 29th,” the Erin Burnett OutFront host tells PEOPLE. “He weighed in at 8 lbs., 10 oz.”

The 37-year-old – who married Rubulotta, a managing director at Citigroup, in December – announced that she was expecting in June.

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What is Middle Class?

$100,000 annual income is not middle class!

When people with that kind of income claim to be middle class they have grown accustomed to a different living style.  They simply cannot relate to those of us in the middle class.

ABC News brought up the subject last night (August 6, 2013).  However, after asking the question, Diane Sawyer provided no answer.  It seems to have evolved from comments by the president.  He too did not define middle class.  ABC did offer some measurements on its website.

Their take is your income must be at least $32,900 per year for a family of four that includes two children.  The upper limit, they say, is $64,000.  The median household income in the United   States was $52,029 in 2011 so this range appears to be reasonable.  The US government considers the poverty line at $23,550.

San Fernando Valley - Typical Middle Class Home
San Fernando Valley – Typical Middle Class Home

So when your brother-in-law pulls into your driveway with a new Lexus and lives like money is no problem he is one of the lucky few.

Amnesty – Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Amnesty.  Synonyms are Official pardon, General pardon, Reprieve, Forgiveness.

Senate Bill 744, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill has one substantial flaw.  It is amnesty. It would immediately provide legal residency to millions of illegal aliens.  They may have entered the country legally on a visitor’s visa or passport or they may have snuck into the country without any legal documentation. In both instances they were never given permission to live permanently in the United States.

My concern is the message that this Senate bill sends to the world. That is if you can manage to sneak into the United States and find employment we will ultimately grant you a green card and the opportunity to become a citizen. Thus this will not be the final wave of illegal immigration. It will be the second wave of illegal immigration. President Reagan’s amnesty law was the first. This law will be marked as an invitation for many more to sneak into this nation.

Everyone will agree that bolstering the border with 24-hour drones, 20,000 new Border Patrol officers and 700 miles of fence are good ideas. The idea that new immigrants must pay fines and fees, know English and be in good standing after undergoing background checks are good plans.  However, the reality is that there are communities where English is rarely used. We provide citizens with ballots in many languages. There is no motivation to learn English.  There is no motivation to participate in American culture.

I am not contending that all illegal aliens are refusing to become part of American culture. I am contending that large numbers of them do not integrate because they are part of communities that insulate them from American life.

Dearborn, Michigan has a large Arabic/Muslim population. Comfortable for them. They live in a ghetto or barrio like community of their own making. The do not have to mingle with American society.

San Fernando, California is 92.5% Hispanic. The surrounding community is primarily Hispanic. If you work there or nearby you do not have to learn English.  It is a Hispanic’s destination for those coming to metropolitan Los Angeles.

These are just two of the many ethnic communities that are insulated from American culture.

Participate in American society? They ask, why should we when we have brought our culture with us?

You Would Be Smiling Too!

Lloyd Blankfein

Lloyd Blankfein is the CEO of Goldman Sachs.  The company cut 900 jobs last year.  He earned $26 million in 2012.   Wouldn’t you be smiling? But he is not alone!

John Stumpf, the head of Wells Fargo Bank was awarded $19.3 million in 2012.

The Capital One chief, Richard Fairbank, was the third highest-paid bank CEO in North America even after taking a 8.9 percent pay cut, dropping his compensation to a mere $17.5 million for 2012.

Poor Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, saw his 2012 compensation cut in half to $11.5 million after a loss of more than $6.2 billion on a failed bet on derivatives.

The pay of the top 20 bank CEOs increased an average of 7.7 percent for 2012 compared with a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The tally is based on salaries, stock, bonuses and long-term incentive pay awarded to the CEOs for 2012.

The annual earnings of the heads of America’s largest corporations average is over $28 million.

Meanwhile the United States BLS reported last September that Median family household income declined by 1.7 percent in real terms between 2010 and 2011 to $62,273.

In other words the leaders of our largest companies earn more than 456 times the average family household earnings.

Isn’t free enterprise a wonderful thing?

Be Rich, Be Smart, Live Longer

Peter R. Orszag, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, has written a column for Bloomberg.com that tells us nothing we did not already know.  Better educated Americans live longer than the rest of us and children of those rich people are getting more education than those that are poorer.  This is hardly news.  I would only disagree with one part of this article.  You will most likely live longer if you are better educated no matter how rich you are.  The riches enable you to buy the best health care and that will most likely extend your life.

Life among the wealthy is extended simply because they are wealthy.  An example of extended life is the still alive Zsa Zsa Gabor who turned 96 this past February.  Her health has seriously deteriorated in recent years but thanks to her wealth she is still alive.

I would have preferred that Mr. Orszag had discussed the primary benefit of ACA (the Affordable Care Act/Obama Health Care).  That would be more productive years of life for more people.

Thus Mr. Orszag ought to be promoting the benefits of ACA.  Similarly the President ought to be promoting the benefit of longer life thanks to the availability of health care.

Disneyland Is Not the Happiest Place on Earth

This all started when AARP had an article in their magazine about happiness.  They referred me to the World Database of Happiness. They have sponsored polls since 2005 and found that Denmark is the happiest place on earth.

According to polls taken from 2005 to 2011, these were the happiest countries:

  1. Denmark
  2. Finland
  3. Norway
  4. Netherlands
  5. Canada
  6. Switzerland
  7. Sweden
  8. New Zealand
  9. Australia
  10. Ireland

The United States ranks 11th, just after Ireland. The unhappiest country is Togo.  It’s not hard to notice that the unhappiest countries are also some of the poorest.The four happiest countries have incomes that are 40 times higher than the four unhappiest countries, the report said. People can also expect to live 28 years longer in the happiest nations.  Apparently cold weather is not a factor in determining happiness.

The questions seem to revolve around how you feel. An example are these questions:

“On the whole how satisfied are you with the life you lead?”

4 very satisfied

3 fairly satisfied

2 not very satisfied

1 not at all satisfied

 “During the past few weeks, did you ever feel ….?” (yes/no)

A. Particularly exited or interested in something?

B. So restless that you couldn’t sit long in a chair?

C. Proud because someone complimented you on something you had done?

D. Very lonely or remote from other people?

E. Pleased about having accomplished something?

F. Bored?

G. On top of the world?

H. Depressed or very unhappy?

I. That things were going your way?

J. Upset because someone criticized you?

Answer options and scoring:

Yes = 1 No = 0

Twenty six categories or criteria entered into the conclusions.  Yes, environment and climate are part of the evaluations.

Are the conclusions biased in favor of European nations?  Perhaps.